In a turbulent week for the Queen,
her priest has announced that she is toast. Wesley Carr, the outspoken Dean
of Westminster, argues that after the slaying of the blue bloods in the
House of Lords, there is scant justification for a monarchy based on a similar
principle.

But in royal and ecclesiastical
circles his remarks are raising awkward questions. He has already acquiesced
in the demise of a brace of organists and at least two headmasters. Now
the controversial cleric seems to be an uncertain ally of his patron: Her
Maj. As the abbey is the coronation church and a Royal Peculiar, his attack
carries weight and has amazed even his critics.

In a discreet lecture to senior
abbey men last week, Carr averred: "Major questions are being asked about
the future of the monarchy. At the moment it is uncertain whether the deprivation
of the hereditary peers might or might not affect the crown. So far as I
can see, if the hereditary system is altered, there must follow questions
about an even more obvious hereditary system: the monarchy." "A Royal Peculiar
indeed," says a top collar. "Is this his revenge for Thomas a Becket? Surely
this time we must be rid of him."